23 Years Without A Championship

One of my non-Philly friends sent me this YouTube video of Philly sports for over the last 23 years to try to make me feel bad. Yea, it's a depressing video, but there are still some sweet highlights from the good times and it's a well made video so enjoy.

DJ Gallo jokes about Philadelphia in the AM Jump

I like to read the AM Jump on ESPN.com's Page 2 site. It's quite entertaining as is Page 2 on the whole. DJ Gallo is one of the funniest authors on the site and he is a common author of the AM Jump, available every morning here. As everyone knows the Sixers gave up two of their big veterans this season - Chris Webber and Allen Iverson. Also of note, the Sixers didn't make the playoffs. So just check out the AM Jump from Monday morning.

The Nuggets pulled off the first upset of the day Sunday, taking down the Spurs, 95-89, as Allen Iverson led all scorers with 31 points. And not to overstate the win, but Denver could be a real title contender. I'd love to see Iverson's Nuggets take on Chris Webber's Pistons in the Finals. Philadelphia sports radio would be full of incomprehensible rage and drunken profanities. Even more than it is now.

AM Jump - Monday April 23rd - Page 2

And Your New Favorite Team is Denver

It's all but official, Iverson is going to Denver to join the Nuggets. Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson on the same team with George Karl as the coach. Now they might not be good for at least 15 games as Carmelo sits and thinks about the stupid punch he threw the other night. At first I liked Carmelo's punch. It was like "Fuck with my teammate I'm going to fuck with you." Which is great and all, but what you got to realize also is that you are your team's best player and if you make that move you know you are going to get punished for it. Your team might lose a few games and that could end up really hurting your team in terms of playoff position. Either way Carmelo probably does regret it a lot and he's learned from it.
January 20th is the first game he can come back for. Until then, its going to be the Iverson show in Denver. As it stands right now, Denver will have the 1st and 2nd highest scorer in the league. Hopefully the two of them can work together. I'm not used to rooting for non-Philly teams, but this is definately an exception. I'm rooting for Iverson, I'm not taking my Iverson poster down. I want to see him and the Nuggets beat everyone in the league. The fans still love Iverson and I bet Iverson still loves the fans. Tuesday, January 2nd, the Sixers travel to Denver. Too bad that game isn't in Philly. The Nuggets don't come to Philly anymore this season.
Maybe Comcast can start showing Denver games instead of the Sixers?


Eh, at least we are going to have 3 first round draft picks next year, right?
I'm also rooting for the Sixers to lose every game so we can get that top draft pick. And don't try and tell that I'm a bad fan for saying that. This is a certain circumstance where you can root for your team to lose.
Just to ruin the draft pick thing for you too, here's the all the first round draft picks the Sixers have had since Iverson in 1996:
Keith Van Horn, Larry Hughes, Speedy Claxton, Samuel Dalembert, John Salmons, and Andre Iguodala. Granted Iguodala could still become a great player, but he's not really capable of leading the team yet. I guess we do Chris Webber to lead the team now though, geeze doesn't that sound great. Or Andre Miller, it's all up for grabs.

Sixers, Nuggets reach agreement for Iverson - ESPN
Iverson goes to Nuggets - Inquirer
Iverson Finally Traded ... To The Nuggs! - Deadspin

The New Hero

The most popular professional athlete in Philadelphia was on the court at the 76ers game last night.

And it wasn't Iverson. This is a very good article by Bob Ford about the Old Greats of Philly might be disappearing. Iverson is growing old and the Sixers still haven't found the winning formula for him. McNabb just had a career changing injury and when he comes back he probably won't be the same. But the Phillies appear to be past the stage and already turning the new page into a new era with Ryan Howard. Howard appears to now be the most popular current athlete in Philadelphia, which I would agree with.

Bob Ford | Iverson's popularity baton passes to Howard

Wooo Sixers

I bring you more from ESPN. Bill Simmon's previewed the upcoming NBA season. I haven't cared for the NBA too much since the Sixers started sucking and it appears this year will also be like that.

The feel-bad Sixers
I have them penciled in for "worst team in the East" status, and not just because they'll be dealing Iverson within the next four months and everyone in Philly is more depressed than Robert Smith when he was writing the "Disintegration" album. Consider the following things ...

A. They're stuck paying Iverson and C-Webb a combined $81 million over the next two seasons.

B. They're paying $21 million in dead salary money this season to Todd MacCulloch, Jamal Mashburn and Greg Buckner.

C. They owe Sam Dalembert and Kyle Korver another $79 million over the next five seasons.

D. Their starting point guard is Kevin Ollie, the NBA equivalent of kicking off an NFL season with Sage Rosenfels and Aaron Brooks.

E. According to the Indy Star, Embattled GM Billy King (that's officially his name now) spent $1,600 to attend Coach K's leadership conference two weeks ago.

F. Points A-thru-D and point E are probably related.

G. Philly reader Rob B. sums everything up: "I'm a Sixers season-ticket holder, which probably tells you everything you need to know about my psyche. The Sixers send you an e-mail at some point each offseason where they lay out what their new ad campaign is this year. They've had doozies in the past, including one campaign that said 'This place is fun!' This year, the slogan is 'It's a Philly thing.' (Go to Sixers.com, it's plastered all over there. And you get to see Mo Cheeks say 'It's a Philly thing' in a really awkward manner.) My friends and I have been pondering for months now what exactly 'it' is? Losing? Mediocrity? Overpaying crappy players? Disappointment?"

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/part2/061101

So, um let's hope the Eagles pick it up or else the only news this winter is going to be which team won't take Pat Burrell.